Encore Software is pleased to announce the next major release of Shark FX™ 9. Shark FX is a highly versatile design product that revolutionizes the ease of 3D content creation suitable for 3D printing, rendering, animation, and precise manufacturing. The product is immediately available for Mac OS X and Windows platforms.

Shark FX 9 introduces a powerful new way of designing that combines the features of subdivision modeling along with those of precision NURB modeling. The gap between these traditionally separate modeling methods is bridged by state of the art technology that converts meshes into optimized smooth NURB models suitable for solid modeling operations such as blending, chamfering, and shelling as well and exporting to .dwg, IGES and STEP file formats. Unique to Shark is the ability to retain the control mesh as part of a feature tree for rapid design iterations that involve the mesh and precise feature operations.

New for Version 9

Shark FX 9 adds a variety of new features that improve performance, productivity, and versatility that include:

64 Bit Modeling for improved handling of large files

Updated Dassault Systèmes™ ACIS Modeling Kernel

Quad Mesh, Add Loop, Extrude Loop, Bridge, Subdivision Tools

Mesh to NURBs based on IntegrityWare™ patent pending technology

SolidWorks™, SolidEdge™, NX™, and Parasolids™ translators*

3D PDF Export*

Woodworking features (dado, miter, dovetail, tongue/groove)

Boolean Edge Treatments

100+ program updates/changes

A Full Array of Features

The new features build upon an already strong set of design tools integrated through a friendly user interface.

ViaCAD has the ability to calculate the 2D section properties for a closed collection of curves using the Verify : Properties tool. The specific properties include:

Center of Area

Moment of Inertia about A axis

Moment of Inertia about B axis

A axis vector components

B axis vector components

To calculate the section properties from a 3D shape, you will first need to generate a 2D slice through the shape. The video below demonstrates how to create a section cut through a 3D part which is then used to calculate the section properties.

Encore is pleased to announce the next major release of the ViaCAD™ family of products consisting of ViaCAD 2D, ViaCAD 2D3D and ViaCAD Pro. ViaCAD is a highly functional, low-cost 2D/3D design product that revolutionizes 3D digital ideation and do it yourself manufacturing. ViaCAD 9 is immediately available for Mac OS X and Windows platforms.

New for Version 9: The release extends existing precision solid modeling methods with the introduction of easy to use conceptual design mesh tools including subdivision modeling. Additionally ViaCAD introduces new woodworking specific features for creating dado, tongue and groove, rabbet, miter, and dovetail joints.

Customizable Grids

Updated modeling and interoperability kernel

Quad mesh tools

Improved STL Output

3D Arrays

Subdivision (ViaCAD Pro)

Woodworking joints (ViaCAD Pro)

64-bit computing (Mac Only)

A Full Array of Features: Key features to ViaCAD comprise a powerful array of tools not normally seen in consumer products:

LogiCursor™ that anticipates your moves

NURB Surface Modeling

Feature Based Solid Modeling

Automated 3D to 2D Drawing Generation

2D and 3D Architectural Tools

Over ninety minutes of training videos

Advanced CAD tools: Both the 2D and 3D design functions provide a complete set of tools for professional and precision designers that include:

Boolean operations in solids, extrusions, healing and repair, parametric features and associativity at high precision.

Parts Libraries as a standard: A 26,000-plus parts library enables the rapid creation of 2D and 3D designs with existing parts, using drag-and-drop functions and dynamic positioning. Ready-to-use models include HVAC networks, kitchen elements, posed figures, office furniture, mechanical parts, home elements and more. These parts libraries are delivered as a standard part of the product.

Many ViaCAD users are unaware of a powerful set of direct modeling tools within the application. These direct modeling tools (delete, move, match, draft, and offset) allow a designer to modify a part that does not have a history tree such as one imported from STEP or IGES.

In version 9, the remove face tool was made easier to use by just selecting the feature and hitting the “delete” key. The video below demonstrates this feature by removing a large number of slots and holes in a part using ViaCAD 2D3D 9. At $99, ViaCAD is unique in the industry to provide designers a choice of modeling methods that include direct modeling, feature tree, and surface associativity!

With ViaCAD 9 you can now create a cutlist. Creating a good cutlist for a woodworking project can take some time, but will ultimately save you more time and money when it comes to purchasing your material. In this demonstration, we explain how to make a cultist using the Bill of Material feature and CutList attribute. The cutlist attribute will help identify parts of the same length, width, and thickness. After you add your cutlist attributes, ViaCAD will generate a Bill of Material listing all the common parts. With cutlist in hand, you can now go to the lumberyard confident that you get the correct amount of material for your project. Click the image below to view the demonstration.

3D printing is shaking up the do it yourself manufacturing communities. Driven by the lower cost cost of 3D printers as well as easy to use service bureaus, makers can now go from concept to part with little expense.

One of the features we’ve introduced in ViaCAD Pro 9 is subdivision. Subdivsion can lower the bar to 3D modeling with simple push/pull modeling methods. Subdivision also provides a complimentary alternative to ViaCAD’s feature based solid modeling tools that allow the user to pick the best method for a given design.

Check out this video where I use the ViaCAD Pro 9 WIP to create a baby spoon. You may be in for a surprise at how simple and inexpensive creating plastic or silver plated versions of this spoon!

The development team has announced availability of a Work In Progress build for ViaCAD Pro 9 for Mac. PC builds will follow shortly. If you are interested in testing the new release, click the icon to the right.

Some of the new features of v9 include:

• 64 Bit
With V9, all Mac builds will be 64 bit compatible. This means you can load much larger parts and models. Previously you were limited to around 2.3 GB of model data in virtual memory. I’ve tested a model using over 20 GB with V9 and find this to be one of the more exciting aspects of v9.

•Cocoa
The old Carbon framework used to interface to the Mac OS has been replaced with Cocoa.

• New Quad Mesh Tools
This build includes a new main palette that includes tools for creating quad mesh primitives.

• Subdivision
New tool that smooths a quad mesh.

•3D Linear Duplicate

•3D Polar Array

•Customizable Grids
You now have an option to display the workplane grid as a polar or ISO grid. You can also change the grid orientation by an angle. Use the new Grid Properties dialog box under the Workplane menu to explore the different options.

*OpenGL

We draw our 3D data to the screen using OpenGL. In the past, we composited objects that did not have a 3D opengl equivalent using 2D. The result was a small frame delay for compositing the 2D frame into the 3D frame. With V9, those draw elements that do not have a 3D opengl equivalent are drawn into an overlay window on top of OpenGL. End result, frame rates have the potential to be faster in v9, more testing and benchmarking needed.

•General Performance Improvements
Large file performance much improved as a result of improvements to ACIS R24 kernel and Interop, 64 bit, and OpenGL performance.

Congratulations to Antoine Dayer who recently won the Best Student & Faculty Rendering of a recent KeyShot rendering contest. Antoine used Shark to model components of a wristwatch which he then exported using OBJ to KeyShot for final renderings. Check out some of Antoine’s stunning designs. Be sure to click on the images for high resolution views.

For those of you interested in a video showing the work flow from Shark to KeyShot see Antoine’s video.